The APT-Birmingham Public Lecture

Saturday 11th May 2019

"YOU WERE NOT BORN HERE, SO YOU ARE CLASSLESS, YOU ARE FREE!"Social Class and Cultural Complex in Analysis

Emilija Kiehl

The question of social class often comes up in my work with British-born patients. My foreign accent arouses their curiosity but it also, it seems, allows a space to open in the transference where together we explore the impact of the British social class system on their experience of themselves and the world. What I came to see as the trans-generational trauma of living in a society of sharp socio-economic divisions based on material property sooner or later emerges in the work and, when a number of years ago I first thought of writing about this, I was puzzled by the dearth of literature on the subject - class is a prominent feature of the British culture, yet rarely explored in the psychological discourse. Moreover, from occasional discussions with my British-born colleagues, I gathered that social class did not seem to come up in their work and was, therefore, not an area of their professional interest. My own interest in the subject seems to be coming from a view, which is both "inside" and "outside" of the British psychosocial fabric and cultural complex.

The title of this talk comes from a patient, whose struggle to separate a sense of personal identity from the social class he desperately wanted to leave behind, inspired me to write about this complex subject.

Emilija Kiehl MSc., is a Jungian Analyst in practice in London. She is a senior member of the British Jungian Analytic Association (BJAA) and the British Psychotherapy Foundation (bpf). Emilija is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) and journal review editor for the Journal of Analytical Psychology (JAP) and book review editor for Spring Journal.Before training in analytical psychology Emilija was a literary translator. Her published translations include the work of John Updike, Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, Noam Chomsky, Scott M. Peck and others.

Time and Place

This event will be held between 10:15 - 12:45 at The Priory Rooms, Quaker Meeting House, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham B4 6AF www.theprioryrooms.co.uk.

Booking

The cost for each lecture is £50.00 for WMIP members and £60.00 for non-WMIP members.